Our place in the sky

9 Feb 2008 — Adrian Morgan

These are my speculations about what aliens from other solar systems might see when they look toward our Sun, assuming that they, like us, mythologise their night sky and divide it into constellations.

My images of alien night skies are generated by planetarium software (namely Starstrider), based on scientific measurements of how bright each star is and where in space it is located. So in that respect, I aim for accuracy. My assumptions about the aliens, on the other hand, are completely unrealistic, which is OK because I’m seeking to entertain, not to hypothesise. I assume that shapes which resemble Earth lifeforms also resemble alien ones, and that the aliens who observe these shapes have eyes similar to our own.

This post is permanently open to requests. Feel free to nominate a star that’s not too far away from our Sun (25 light years is a rough limit), and I’ll see if I can invent a similar constellation from its perspective. [Update: Nominations are closed, because Starstrider no longer worked properly after I upgraded to Windows 7.] Also, feel free to draw constellations of your own in a similar spirit, upload some illustrations, and link to them in the comments.

Items appear in the order they were added. Links to images are in bold text (I didn’t use thumbnail images because they don’t work well for starfields).

Viewed from Alpha Centauri, our Sun is the tip of the snout of an animalesque constellation. Compared to Delta Persei, which is quite a different orifice of the same beast, we may consider ourselves fortunate.

Viewed from Epsilon Eridani, our Sun is part of a simple kite-shaped constellation (stars labelled here). Of all extrasolar systems that are known to have planets, Epsilon Eridani is the nearest to us, and it crops up occasionally in science fiction. — Added 6 April 2008

Inspired by this article, I decided to investigate the view from Upsilon Andromedae. It turns out that the Sun appears as a faint star underneath a constellation of a walking pterosaur. — Added 25 May 2010

Potentially habitable planets are found from time to time around the star Gliese 581, most recently Gliese 581g. Here is a portion of its sky showing the position of the Sun relative to other objects. As for constellations, the first thing I thought of was a pair of worms approaching the Pleiades, but later I thought it could be a giant bird. — Added 5 October 2010

Another potentially habitable planet has been identified orbiting the star HD85512. Here is a screenshot showing the position of the sun in its night sky. My astrological interpretation is that, from the perspective of HD85512bians, the Sun is being stared at by a cosmic duck. — Added 20 September 2011

I was inspired by Mark Rosenfelder’s page of nearby stars to look for a Sol-bearing constellation from at least one world in his list that I haven’t already covered. I chose Epsilon Indi, from which I think aliens see the Sun as the shoulder of a giant rocking horse. (If you wish, you can extend the neck to incorporate the line of brightish stars just above the head as I’ve drawn it; it’s alien, after all.) — Added 14 October 2011